Perils of Recalled but Unrepaired Cars

You may have seen recent news about recalled vehicles owned by national rental car agencies and ensuing litigation from tragedies that occurred in those cars.

But the public exposure looms much larger than just the rental car marketplace. There is a large, critical flaw in the U.S. vehicle-recall system: Thousands of potentially lethal vehicles litter the U.S. roadways here’s no highly effective mechanism for ensuring that at-risk cars, particularly used cars, are being screened and ultimately fixed. Many of those due to be repaired vehicles run a fine line between being safe and deathly.

The bottom line is that a vehicle’s owner has ultimate responsibility for making sure it has been thoroughly screened for recall issues, the current U.S. system doesn’t help much.

Though manufacturers send several warning letters car owners with vehicles in recall status, some original owners deliberately ignore recall notices and don’t pass them on to buyers…possibly fearing a jeopardized selling price. The reality is that no law exists requiring a car’s owner to notify a prospective buyers that a recall has been issued on the vehicle.

For example, General Motors’ overall “completion rate” for repairs indicated by recalls at 80 percent while some other automakers claim recall completion rates upwards of 95 precent.